


Homecoming

by Werepirechick



Series: this unfamiliar road... [3]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, F/M, Feral Behavior, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Multi, OT3, One Shot, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, because i recently needed some of that in my life, i might just use this for my ot3 singles in the series later on, its nothing but sweet things, part of the series technically but its vague enough in parts that it can be read as a standalone, probably??, these three need some of that kinda thing in their lives too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 08:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15636645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: It’s just a short while later that footsteps approach their sometimes shared room. (Shared, when Jim needs the presence of one of his partners more deeply than usual, or when one or both of them wake from vivid nightmares and can’t be alone, or they just feel like it. The bed is plenty big enough for two, or three.)Jim’s head comes up, pupils blown and ears swiveling. Toby pauses his game and sets it on his lap, preparing for the entrance.Claire’s arm shoves aside the thick curtain of their doorway and comes inside in a flurry of movement. Her bag is dropped carelessly and shoes kicked off simultaneously. She flops on top of both of them with a loud, frustrated groan- both of her boys catching her fall.





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> i needed some tooth rotting fluff, and i needed to get some of my desperate longing for happy & mostly healthy & fully established jlairby. this was the result.
> 
> basically, this is the culmination of some things i wanna have happen in Adjustments (which i SWEAR TO GOD, I AM WORKING ON uPDATING), and a sort of brief vision for what these three will do in their early adult years... once some stuff between them and their individual traumas get sorted through a little. :')

Off weekends are great for all three of them. Off weekends as in Claire gets a break from endless homework, Jim’s Trollhunter duties mellow down to only a few minor incidents a night, and Toby gets to have both his favorite people in the same room without hectically stressed energy disturbing them.

Jim is doing what he usually does when it’s just him, Toby, and a restful night- he’s curled in a lazy semi-circle around his friend, eyes shut and head pillowed on his arms. The fresh bandages on his neck and face (the only places exposed by his armor) are companion to the ones up and down Toby’s arms.

Their latest misadventure in Trollhunter duties had been a little more harrowing than usual, and ended them both up recuperating under bedrest orders the past day and a half. It’s just another bundle of scars added to the ones they’ve already collected over the past five years; since the day Jim picked up the amulet. They, honestly at this point, don’t even mind.

Though, it makes using his beat-up old Nintendo Switch a bit difficult for Toby, as he sprained one of his pinkies and got a small gash across the back of his other hand. With him being somewhat banged up as he is, it’s probably a good thing they don’t have anywhere to be right now. Jim keeps growling anyone who isn’t family for getting too close to Toby (and Toby, to a lesser extent, metaphorically growls at anyone trying to ask Jim to do Trollhunter stuff while he’s still recovering).

They’re waiting for their third and final member to arrive. Gyre travel, while seconds long for the journey, is sometimes impeded by the rider’s schedule. Claire texted a while ago she had to deal with some things before rolling into New Trollmarket, adding a tearful smiley face at the end of her message.

Jim had been mildly dejected when they got that message; ears pinning back and soft grumbles coming from him. Even with Toby living in the market nowadays, Claire’s absence is still difficult on occasion.

But, after being asked to kneel down for a moment, blunt nails against the base of his horns had quieted the discomfort of having one of his bond partners so far from home.

Jim floats back and forth from full consciousness; waking enough to sometimes start a gentle purr, eyes slits as he curls a little more around Toby. Comfortable and pleased to have his friend leaned against his middle; providing grounding weight and a heat source to enjoy.

Toby is both happy to be in the position he is, tucked in close to Jim’s stomach, and that his friend can keep so still while he focuses on playing _Breath of the Wild_ for the umpteenth time. It’s only the now and then deep inhales and happy sighs that Jim makes which disturb Toby’s concentration, even just for a moment.

Toby doesn’t mind. He’s beat the game enough times now that this is just occupying his attention, nothing really serious, and Jim’s calm happiness is always more important than any win against a Bokoblin.

It’s just a short while later that footsteps approach their sometimes shared room. (Shared, when Jim needs the presence of one of his partners more deeply than usual, or when one or both of them wake from vivid nightmares and can’t be alone, or they just feel like it. The bed is plenty big enough for two, or three.)

Jim’s head comes up, pupils blown and ears swiveling. Toby pauses his game and sets it on his lap, preparing for the entrance.

Claire’s arm shoves aside the thick curtain of their doorway and comes inside in a flurry of movement. Her bag is dropped carelessly and shoes kicked off simultaneously. She flops on top of both of them with a loud, frustrated groan- both of her boys catching her fall.

Jim scoops the two humans into his lap as he sits up; happily using his size to cradle them both close. Toby makes grunts as his gut gets elbowed a couple times, but he and Claire do manage to end up in a tangle of limbs that could be classified as ‘pleasantly and properly cuddling’. As is how these meetups tend to go.

Their delayed party member sighs. “ _Why did I ever go back to school?”_ Claire laments piteously into Toby’s hair and Jim’s shoulder. “Why do I have _so much homework?”_

“’cause you’re the one who felt like doing a double major at one of the top Ivy leagues,” Toby comforts dryly, patting Claire’s back. “Which, we support you in and congratulate your success, but also. You’re a little insane, Claire.”

“Says the guy with four bandaids on his face right now,” Claire comments, leaning back and examining them both more closely. She grimaces, reaching up and touching the largest bandage on Jim’s cheek. “Jesus, what’d you two pick a fight with _this_ time?”

“In our defense,” Jim says mildly, pressing his cheek into her palm and smiling goofily, “ _they_ picked a fight with _us.”_

Claire shakes her head fondly, dropping her hand after she rubs the tip of Jim’s ear. “I leave you alone for one week, I swear to god.”

Toby rolls his eyes. “You say that like you yourself wouldn’t have also run head-on at those freaky golems.”

“Golems again? I thought you guys got rid of that cult last month. Also: shut up. I do not _always_ do that.”

“They had apprentices, and yeah you fucking do every single time. _I_ am the only one who doesn’t chuck myself at the nearest danger without thinking first.”

“And then you do it anyway, even if it’s a bad plan.”

“It’s usually _this guy’s_ bad plan,” Toby points out, poking Jim’s chest, “so take it up with the man in charge of things.”

“My plans are not always bad,” Jim protests.

“Honey,” Claire says, “the go-to plan is to just hit it until it stops moving. _Always_.”

“And it works, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe so, but it also ends up with the thing you’re hitting, _hitting you back_.”

“And then we hit it even harder. Problem solved.” Jim doesn’t quell under the raised eyebrows of his two partners. He just gives them a confident-ish smile, lopsided and endearing. “C’mon, guys. I can take a few hits no problem. It barely hurts half the time anyway.”

Toby and Claire share a _look_ between themselves- because, as usual, Jim is underrating his own right to be something more than just the world’s punching bag.

“Stop letting people mess up his cute face,” Claire lightly scolds Toby.

“It’s not cute, and I’m right here.”

Toby gestures with his bandaged and bruised arms. “What do you think I was trying to do when I got these? He’s big and fast, dude. It’s hard to cover all the bases at once.”

“ _Right here,_ guys.”

Claire tsks. “Of course, but still. Try. Also- don’t let people mess up _your_ cute face, either.”

Toby goes faintly pink in said cute face. Jim has started making a rumbly purr again, grinning as Toby tries to twist away from both him and Claire.

“Okay, that point?” Jim says, voice low and a little gravely as he purrs, butting his head against Toby’s. He minds his horns as he does. “That point I can agree with. His face is _very_ cute.”

Toby covers his face and groans. “ _Ugh_ , guys, c’mon. Quit it.”

“Never,” Claire laughs brightly. The stress around her eyes is already easing, just for a handful of minutes bantering with them. Jim has gotten steadily louder with his purring, too- more than happy to have _both_ of his bonds in one room again, and _in his lap_ no less. Safe, secure, _here._

Toby is still covering his face and muttering about flirts. He’s more than ready to dish out compliments, but when people he cares about turn around and do it to _him_ , he gets a little flustered. Jim and Claire may or may not have fun with that, sometimes. (A lot of the time.)

Feeling her stomach growl, Claire decides an abrupt end tot things is better than a drawn out one. She (albeit reluctantly) pries herself out of their group tangle, standing up and straightening her clothes despite Jim’s quiet whine. “Okay! Much as I love you both, I am not only hungry, but also _really_ want to put on god damn pajama pants. I am done being a respectable human being. Someone hand me a bag of chips and a sandwich, stat.”

Jim’s mood perks up again at the mention of making food. Toby gestures at the vaguely-still-wearable clothing pile in the corner of the room. “Where you left ‘em, still,” Toby says, talking about the black skull patterned PJs on the pile.

They break and go to take care of different things. Jim busies himself with one of his favorite activities, putting more effort into a single sandwich than most people do with a whole meal. Claire dumps her ‘ _rebellious but respectable’_ university outfit on the laundry pile, thanking the gods that they all have a good chunk of each other’s clothes in their individual abodes. Toby takes it upon himself in the meantime to find more pillows.

They reunite again soon; Jim presenting Claire her food, just as she finishes giving the side of her head that still has hair a quick brush. He takes advantage of her distraction getting food into her stomach, putting his cheek to her shaved side and rubbing scent onto it. The action satisfies an instinct that is lost upon majority humans; no one will _smell_ him and Toby on her, because humans can’t smell for shit, but it makes him feel better. An invisible ward and tie, to keep others away, to let them know- _she’s with us._

Claire knows what he’s doing, as she has for years. She stops him from moving away right after, tugging him lightly by his scruff close enough she can peck his cheek. Her own invisible ward and tie.

“Missed you, too,” she says, touching their foreheads together. The contact sends a gentle shiver through Jim, feeling warm and good from head to toe. Claire giggles at the chirrupy interruption of Jim’s purring, warbling and adorable.

Claire gives Jim’s cold nose a kiss and then goes to flounce onto the bed with Toby; the other human in the room having resumed his game while waiting on them both. Dropping onto all fours, Jim climbs onto the futon after them; rubbing against Toby and Claire’s backs as he takes his semi-circle position again. Settling down, he sighs long and deep at the rightness of having them so close by, and how safe _he_ feels for it.

Sleeping can still be difficult, for multiple reasons. They all have nightmares on occasion, and for Jim, his aversion to any kind of vulnerability, outside of specific environments, never quite goes away. But with Claire and Toby _both_ leaned against his side, pressing him down, comforting and _protective_ … he feels like he’ll be able to catnap without any fear at all.

And besides that, he knows they’ll probably neutralize any hypothetical threat that interrupts them before he can so much as growl. It’s one of the many reasons he loves them.

Jim closes his eyes, one ear perked to listen to the soothing conversation between his partners. They’re both sinking into the same kind of calm contentedness Jim has; Claire finishing off her sandwich and Toby done tucking pillows into place around them for maximum comfort. The setup they’ve got going is, by now, a familiar and practiced one.

Claire absently threads her fingers through Jim’s stiff hair, scratching the places he likes. His purr kicks up again, vibrating through the pillows and the bones of his partners; rolling and deep, the sound of pure contentedness. Toby slouches a little further against the wall of cool body behind him, getting into a better position for Claire to lean against his side while he keeps playing.

Her head ends up against his shoulder, her tip dyed hair nearly falling into her face and Toby’s somewhat shaggy locks tickling her forehead. Jim silently rejoices that like this, their scents will mingle and mix again, and they’ll all walk away smelling like the trio they are.

With everyone in one place, nutrients and comfy clothes obtained, and entertainment in hand for the next however long they want to be here- the three of them slowly and steadily unwind together. Cooped up in a cavern all to themselves, at ease in each other’s presences and happy to be reunited once more.

**Author's Note:**

> [come see me on tumblr and talk to me about my fics :)](https://chillahead-bridge.tumblr.com/)


End file.
